Matthew's web log

As my friends may know, I’m a bit of a Simpsons fan. A few years ago, Universal Studios opened "The Simpsons Ride" and I’ve been wanting to go. The main reason for stopping in L.A. was for me to make my pilgrimage to the attraction. After breakfast, we went to Universal. I hadn’t been there since I was a kid.  After it took way too long to get our tickets, we entered the park.  We stopped by a couple rides and shows and then had lunch. By then, the wait times (as nicely indicated on the electronic sign) showed a reasonable wait time of about 20 minutes for The Simpsons Ride, so we hit the line.

The waiting area is well done with clever posters and new and old clips of the show. All the amusement parks do a good job of entertaining you while you are waiting (so you don’t feel like you’re on "The Line Ride"). The ride is done up as a visit to "Krustyland". It’s a motion simulator ride like "Star Tours" was years ago. They improved things a bit by making it more immersive by having the screen be nearly 360 degrees (think IMAX type). The "plot" is that Sideshow Bob is trying to kill the Simpsons at Krustyland. It had cute tie ins to the show and I liked how you were going though Krustyland and the town. All in all, I was entertained and my mission was complete.

Afterwards, we hit a couple more rides and got our picture with Marge & Homer. Before we left on vacation, I had the idea to get a picture with L’ on one side, Marge on the other, and me in the middle receiving a kiss on the cheek from each of them. Lacking the guts to actually set it up, L’ stepped up to the plate and asked Marge & Homer. Marge actually did it and L’ was ready, only the camera guy didn’t take the picture. Then Homer played along and looked upset, turned his back to which Marge consoled him. He then kissed her hand and made up. It was very cute and in the end we just got a picture of the four of us.

The studio tour tram ride was neat, but I recall it being better when I was there as a wee-one.  Now the tour feels much more like an amusement park attraction than an actual visit to a movie studio.  The only thing really movie related was seeing the set from Back to the Future and (my favorite show) Desperate Housewives.   There was a cool set of an airplane crash, but other than the sets, there was very little movie related.   L’ and I agreed that the place is fun as an adult but really magical as a kid.

After hitting the remaining attractions of interest, it was dark and we were getting hungry so we hit a restaurant adjacent to the park.  Since we had a somewhat early dinner, it was still early enough that we made a go of getting to the Griffith Observatory.  It was then that we got stuck in the infamous LA traffic. It turned out that the park the observatory is located in was home to a light show and there were tons of cars going there. We call the Observatory to find out what the deal was and were surprised when an actual person picked up. The guy was awesome and we described where we were and the traffic backup, to which he looked on a map and gave us complete directions to sidestep the jam and we make it to the Observatory. The museum there (famous for being in the movie "Rebel Without a Cause") was small but informative and the views of the city were great. From here, we headed home and went to sleep.

The full photo album is here:

http://sanjoseabrams.com/photos/SouthernCaliforniaDec2009/index.html